Judge denies Trump’s bid for mistrial in E. Jean Carroll rape lawsuit
Former President Donald Trump’s attorney requested a mistrial Monday in E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape case against the ex-commander-in-chief – citing “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings” by the Manhattan federal court judge.
But Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the motion before the jury was brought into the courtroom Monday morning. The judge did not explain his decision.
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina had said in the letter filed in Manhattan federal court earlier Monday that he would ask Kaplan to “correct the record for each and every instance in which the Court has mischaracterized the facts of this case to the jury” or provide him greater leeway in cross-examining Carroll.
“Here, despite the fact trial testimony has been underway for only two days, the proceedings are already replete with numerous examples of Defendant’s unfair treatment by the Court, most of which has been witnessed by the Jury,” he wrote.
Carroll, 79, testified last week that Trump, 76, raped her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in midtown Manhattan, most likely in the spring of 1996.
She has alleged that he defamed her when he denied her claim, said she wasn’t his type, and suggested she concocted the story to boost sales of her 2019 memoir.
The former president has denied any wrongdoing.
Carroll took the witness stand for the third time Monday, for a second day of cross-examination by Tacopina, who argued that he should have been allowed to explore why she did not pursue security footage from the store and why she did not go to the police after the alleged incident.
“You can’t beat up on me because I didn’t scream,” Carroll told him after insisting earlier that she was “not a screamer — I’m a fighter.”
In his mistrial request, Tacopina also complained that the judge shut down his questioning when he pushed Carroll to explain why she did not scream.
Tacopina on Monday pressed Carroll about why she didn’t report the alleged attack to the police.
Carroll responded that women from her generation were not taught to report incidents like hers.
The fact that I never went to the police is not surprising from someone my age,” she said. “I would never call the police about something I was ashamed of.”
“I was ashamed about what happened,” she said. “I thought it was my fault.”
A rep for Carroll declined to comment to The Post.
